The video is four minutes long. Great things on the horizon to protect our native orchids.
Archive for the ‘Natural History’ category
Video: Learn About the North American Orchid Conservation Center
December 10, 2012Plants Are Cool Too Episode Two Ready for View
September 23, 2012Former NYFA board member Chris Martine, who now teaches at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, has released his second in a series of videos about how plants are cool too. This one shows the actual plant leaves (not fossils) that were preserved in rock 15 million years ago!
Northeast Natural History Conference 2012 a Success
April 19, 2012There were many interesting student and professional talks and posters at this year’s conference. The venue had rooms close together which made switching from one to the other easy, especially since we didn’t have to walk in from the front.The biggest challenge was the PowerPoint clicker ergonomics when speakers hit the forward button when they wanted to hit the laser pointer button. When will projector companies ever figure that out?
For a list of the oral abstracts from the conference CLICK HERE.
For a list of the poster abstracts CLICK HERE.
NYFA judged the speakers for best poster, best student presentation and best overall presentation. We will announce them on an upcoming post. We look forward to 2013! – Steve Young.
The poster session and refreshment table.
New Phenology Apps Help Track Bloom Times and Global Warming
April 9, 2012One way to track the change in climate is to record bloom times of plants over the years. There are three Smartphone apps that allow you to do this. One is called PhenoMap and it allows users to collect data using Flickr accounts. Another is called Natures Notebook and it allows users to record plant and animal life cycle events like migrations and plant phenology. You first have to register with the National Phenology Network. It is also available for Android phones. The third one is called Project BudBurst for Android (iPhone coming soon they say) and it also includes a game called Floracaching which is like geocaching but with plants! I would be interested if anyone plays this game and how it turns out. – Steve Young
A screenshot from the Floracaching website.
Publication: An Introduction to Our Native Bees
September 12, 2011CLICK HERE to see an excellent and beautiful publication on the identification and natural history of our native bees. For those of you focusing on the pollinators as well as the flowers, this publication will help you understand the diversity and behavior of our native bees.
Staten Island Greenbelt Video. A Refuge for New York Flora.
August 25, 2011This video presents the history of the Greenbelt and its importance on Staten Island. The Greenbelt is a refuge for many New York State rare plants. It provides an environment for plant enthusiast to observe many species on the extreme southern edge of our flora that aren’t seen elsewhere in the state. This video is included in a series of nature videos available on the website of the Protectors of Pine Oak Woods. CLICK HERE to see the videos. – Steve Young
Photo Show: Every Tree Tells a Story
May 2, 2011The Cultural Landscape Foundation presents: Every Tree Tells a Story featuring extraordinary trees and tree groupings at twelve sites around the country and Puerto Rico. The show includes a history of the elms of East Hampton, New York. For the website CLICK HERE.
Help Record Plant Phenology in New York With Project Bud Break
March 15, 2011Now that plants are starting to flower (I have gotten reports of skunk cabbage and pussy willow) you can help record this natural phenomenon by using the New York-based website Project Bud Break. According to the website it is associated with a national effort, a network of citizen scientists that is being established in New York to observe the timing of flowering, leaf development, fruiting, and leaf drop in populations of common native trees and herbaceous species. This site will help observers to enter their data on the timing of important plant events through the growing season. Through time they can see the effects of climate change by observing the fluctuations in phenology of our native plants. To register for the site CLICK HERE.
Help record the flowering and fruiting of trees like the silver maple pictured here.
The History of High School Botany Education in America
March 8, 2011Margaret Conover, a botanist from SUNY Stony Brook, has written an interesting overview of how botany has been taught in American high schools from 1800 to the present. She states that just over 100 years ago nearly all high-school students studied botany for a full year and emphasis was placed on identifying local flora.
Later, the “Golden Age of Botany Teaching” and the nature study movement of the early 1900s had students studying all aspects of plants in nature. The state Board of Regents even had a botany exam (which you can take yourself on page 4 of her article).
What happened to this emphasis on botany in high schools? Read her article and you will find out why it is so different today. Why a student who omits the answer to every plant related question on the Living Environments Regents Exam could still receive a passing grade of 80% and what the forces are that have led to the decline of botany as a subject in high school.
She ends with a note of hope that people are working to cure the “plant blindness” that pervades high-school biology education. To read the full article from the Long Island Botanical Society newsletter CLICK HERE.
Marielle Anzelone teaches high schoolers about plants in the Bronx. Photo Drosera.com
An Ode to Naturalists and Their Discoveries
March 3, 2011A recent New York Times article by Richard Conniff entitled “How Species Save Our Lives” heaps praise on naturalists and their discovery of species that have provided the many health benefits that we enjoy today. I like his comments, “Were it not for the work of naturalists, you and I would probably be dead. Or if alive, we would be far likelier to be crippled, in pain, or otherwise incapacitated.” And “When the new wave of emerging diseases comes washing up on our doorsteps, we may find ourselves asking two questions: Where are the naturalists to help us sort out the causes and cures? And where are the species that might once have saved us?”
He presents a good, and much used, reason why we must continue to explore the natural world and save species. I also like his suggestion #7: “Learn to identify 10 species of plants and animals in your own neighborhood, then 20, and onward.” NYFA can help with that! To read the entire article CLICK HERE. You can also see his blog about species at The Species Seekers.
Learning about species at Wildland.com
